Job Description

SUMMARY

This is a key role for our projects in the agriculture domain. An ideal candidate is expected to have deep knowledge about various technical areas in agriculture including crops, seed, pests, soil, weather, and other areas in relevance to agriculture & farming. The candidate should also have a strong understanding of various Government and private agricultural programs and processes, evaluation techniques, and policies.

ABOUT US

Wadhwani AI is a non-profit applied AI institute that brings artificial intelligence technology to social challenges in low and middle-income countries. Through our solutions, AI becomes an enabling technology that bridges the gap between problems and solutions, augments human capabilities and provides advanced decision support. We collaborate with social sector organizations, the government, domain experts and academic institutions to identify real-world challenges, create and deploy innovative AI solutions to reach intended users and beneficiaries - with the objective of creating sustainable, scalable impact.

Currently, we are building AI-based solutions in the agriculture and health domains, such as pest management, maternal, newborn and child health, tuberculosis and COVID19. Our projects are supported by leading philanthropies such as Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), USAID and Google.org.

Our accolades are as follows:

Wadhwani AI was the only Google AI impact challenge winner from India in 2019, and the first organization in the Asia Pacific to welcome a cohort of Google Fellows.

Our pest management solution, CottonAce earned an honorable mention at the Fast Company World Changing Awards 2021.

In April 2022, CottonAce was announced as one of the five winners of the Global Change Award (GCA) in 2022. The Global Change Award is an endeavor by the H&M Foundation to transform fashion and turn the entire industry planet positive.

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Will be responsible to identify the need for Agriculture research in the various use cases and design the scientific research parameters for the same.

Liaison with various research institutions and Agriculture Experts and lead the Agri-research work in collaboration with them and with programs by doing a series of field experiments.

Designing/planning/Guiding/visiting farm fields, farmers, and researchers for the field research and data collection and support research activities, as and when needed or required in agriculture and allied fields.

Working closely with third-party research agencies to do evaluation studies and research findings.

Actively engage in data analysis and work closely with researchers for putting that into use.

Will be responsible for, write-up the drafts of the results of field trials/POC, field experiments, and piloting of the solutions for presenting to the teams as well help in writing academic papers, policy briefs, presentations, etc.

Provide regular update reports to Principal Investigators, research staff, and other team members.

Will prepare and propose datasets requirements in agriculture and allied areas and will build data collection mechanisms in discussions with Research, Program & Product, Engineering teams.

Will write proposals for solution validation, experimentation, etc to be submitted to Research Institutions as and when required.

Will develop and maintain relationships with research institutes and scientist\'s community of agriculture and allied areas for acknowledgment management and various requirements for the solutions.

REQUIREMENTS

Preferred Ph.D. in agriculture entomology, plant physiology, agronomy, agrometeorology with minimum 5-8 years of work experience in agriculture research, research-oriented programs, or M.Sc. in Entomology/Agronomy/Pathology/Physiology with minimum 8-12 years of work experience as a Researcher in organizations/ projects engaged in agriculture product development, seed improvement, contract farming, crop and yield modeling, climate-resilient agriculture, etc.

Design research experience with users from diverse backgrounds, preferably including some experience with rural, underprivileged, or other vulnerable groups

Willing to travel extensively and excited to get on the ground in rural settings. Knowledge of a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research methods, such as lab-based usability studies. research, usability inspections, creation of user profiles or personas, participatory design, survey research, experiment design, and statistical analysis.

Must be fluent in English & Hindi; multiple Indian languages is a plus.

Understanding of the strengths and shortcomings of various research methods, including when and how to apply them during each product phase.

Wadhwani AI